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Episode31
Reaver Cathedral Things were moving quickly now that Pete had set events in motion with his special brand of diplomacy (or was it all moving at the speed of the plot already? - we may never know). With the queen secure, our plan was to assault the Black Eye cathedral before they had a chance to finish whatever nasty ritual they were up to. Thanks to Sprooseree we had a way to Portal directly into the Cathedral. She also provided a rough map (looked like a road-kill donut) which showed a large viewing room in the center with other rooms in concentric rings around it. She also offered to help scry but that was going to cost us since it had some element of risk. Over the clamour of the other PC's offering to help (not), Oz worked out a deal where he'd make a weapon for her in exchange for some additional -and badly needed - intel. Her 'magic eyeball' spell showed us a large petrified tree with many holes from past tree-metal mining. There were portals around it with materials from the depot spewing forth, and many Black-Eyed minions crafting what appeared to be a huge ring out of the Tree-Salvage. It was supposed by the PCs that this could be intended to act as a Reaver Gating-In Portal, (in conjunction with the ritual perhaps?), and that Ideally we could size control of it once it was complete, (the Gate, not the Ritual!). The holes in the petrified Tree were now used as entrances, with guards, but when our magic eye attempted to enter it was blocked, (dispelled?). It's a good thing that Pete suggested checking, since the original plan involved opening a portal directly inside the Cathedral but that wouldn't work if there was magical protection around the place. New plan: portal close to the entrance and have Sprooseree talk us in disguised like we belong and continue until we get caught. I seem to remember Sproos negotiating some kind of deal for this as well but I can't remember exactly what she wanted. Perhaps one of the other PC's was more mindful of the NPC chatter than this logger. With a plan in place (or was it 14% of a plan?) we beamed to the Cathedral and everything was going great until Sproos needed to talk us in at which point she totally choked. Luckily, Oz has a little experience talking his way into high-security facilities so he jumped in... and promptly rolled a 1. Perhaps even more luckily, Oz is a 'gifted' individual so he re-rolled and got a 20. That was enough to convinced the guards that we belonged and they let us enter. It should be noted at this point that Pete stated for the record that his plan to *not* re-roll the 1 was terrible. Inside the Cathedral we followed Sproos to the Viewing Chamber where the ritual was happening. It was a simple matter to talk our way past the guard but Sproos got spooked and bailed (as she warned us she would do). The ritual was in full force and it was focused on the 'Spawner' Reaver husk in the center of the room. They were attempting to summon the Reaver back into its husk somehow! The King was there in some kind of trance (not good) as well as a squirrel from the royal guard who we'd met before and looked to be under the Black Eye's sway now. We agreed to a surprise attack in 'shock and awe' style with each of us hitting different targets. Oz fired his acid cannon and melted a bunch of squirrel acolytes. Joe fired his freeze spooge and killed a bunch more. Was it wrong to kill a dozen Acolytes who were possibly under the Reaver's sway? Perhaps but in tough times, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and we couldn't afford to have them try and stop us when the fate of the entire Tree-Wee race depended on our success. Pete and Kiwi went for the big prize and attacked Cloaka who was leading the ritual. Both of them hit and damaged her personal DC while also wiping her personal (pre-Force Skin) RF. After that, the fight was on! It seemed like the Prophecy was with us. Kiwi made a critical defend to counter a critical strike from Cloaka. They then traded epic strikes/defends and fought like crazed squirrels in the shadow of the Reaver. The rest of the party chose ranged attacks with Pete notably fumbling after powering up for a dozen segments. Oz decided to focus on the Reaver since it appeared to be consuming the souls of the dead acolytes. We definitely did not want it rising from the dead with a score or more souls in its Soul Armor! He hit it with a Fate Twist to soften it up and then unleashed his level 10 Gaze of Righteousness which was too much for it and it exploded into dust. He really wanted to grab some of that dust since it might be enough to fuel a Reaver-Talk ritual. If we could interrogate it we might be able to find out some valuable info so we're not completely in the dark. Like for example, what the heck are they looking for in Kovinatus space?? We ended things mid-battle just after Cloaka's twin emerged from hiding after powering up. We'll have to take care of both twins before we can declare victory. 11 combat for the log keeper. . Back to Space Junk Log Category:Space Junk